History

It is not possible to understand the current political situation of Québec and the reasons for the existence of its strong independence movement without a solid knowledge of its history.

Real history is made out of a countless number of events. No historian ever intended nor was ever expected to enumerate and explain them in totality. When writing about the history of a given human community, a number of events must be selected and interpreted to make up a "story" with a beginning, a progression, and some sort of a conclusion. All over the world, in the past and in the present, patriotism and political leanings have weighted a great deal in the selection and interpretation of the events making up the tale of "national history". There is no exception for Canada or Quebec.

Many English language resources you will find on the Internet (type "Canada" or "Canadian" and "History" in Google) present a very superficial overview of Canadian history as it is understood and promoted by Canadian nationalists and Unionists who defend the point of view suitable to the purpose of the political power in Ottawa, even when this point of view is morally wrong and/or supported by logically flawed arguments and/or factually incorrect assertions. In fiction, nobody expects a tale to be written using an unbiased and scientific collection of facts as sole material. In the writing of human history, the national fairy tales taught in schools are too often closer to fiction than non-fiction.

To suit the view of a certain minority of interested individuals and their paid or fooled followers, it was decided that "modern" Canada was born with the "confederal" regime of 1867. That is to say when some of the countries that had previously been part of "British North America" were federated in a single new political entity to which the name "Canada" was attached for the first time. This is the dominant perspective in Canada. The most important events of the history of Québec (and therefore also British North America) which occurred before 1867 are therefore sketched out in a manner which pays little respect to the important facts necessary to understand the nature of today's conflict between Québec and the federal State of Canada and yesterday's conflict between Québec and the British government.

Québec, it is said by these nationalists, is only a province like the others, and it is therefore wrong to suggest the idea and even worst to ask for a special arrangement between Québec and the federal State. The myth says that when the first four British North American Provinces were federated, a new "political" nationality was born, thus putting an end to the "conflict between two races" that until then slowed down the progress and development of British North America for so long.

The secession of Québec from this federation, in addition to being immoral because it would promote "ethnic" nationalism, amounts to treason and disloyalty. The political equality of provinces inside the Union is placed above and made in opposition to the principle of the equality of nations on Earth. But those same people hold the view that Quebec is not a legitimate nation, since its nationalism is inherently and demonstrably wrong (not purely political as that of Canada), as they have learned from their historians. Therefore, to them, there could not exist any good argument following from the premise that Québec is in fact a political nation and was such even before the creation of the federal Dominion of Canada in 1867. In simple terms, their view is the history written by the victor, the one which is not interested in giving an accurate account of the way in which the victories were achieved and the human cost involved in achieving them. It nevertheless needs a moral justification as do all imperialisms.

Below is a list of on line English language resources that present elements of the history of Québec in a manner which does not completely make abstraction of, obfuscate, or misrepresent certain facts which the adversaries of the Québec nationalists simply ignore or choose to ignore because they are incompatible with their political preference.

We do not claim these external resources to be free of inaccuracies, errors or partisan opinions. With this page, we only wish to point out some external resources on the history of Québec which are not completely biased in favour of the theses defended by the federal government's agents and political parties waging war to Québec's nationalists, both the secessionists and the reformists, who, in spite of their disagreement on the best way to end the constitutional crisis of Canada, agree on basic facts and interpretations, such as the national character of Québec society, past and present.

Visitors to this site are expected to exercise judgement in order to figure out what is true and what is false and discern what is a fact from what is a point of view.

American immigration

Jewish immigration

German immigration

Historical figures

Quebec French

Quebec French is a variety of the French language that came to be distinct from the French of France in essentially the same way in which the English of America came to be distinct from the English of England.